Wafers are fabricated with a plurality of dies each having a plurality of integrated circuit elements therein. A die represents one individual chip that must be separated from adjacent dies before packaging. Contacts are added to the die before packaging the chip. One type of contact is a solder ball. Solder balls are used to mount the integrated circuit chip to a substrate. In today's technological environment, there is a continuous desire to increase integration of greater numbers of circuits onto a single semiconductor chip. At the same time there is a requirement to increase performance of the chip, whether it is a memory chip, processor chip, telecommunication chip or other integrated circuit chip. As more functions are integrated into a chip, the number of interconnections to other chips and/or electrical devices increases. Often, the goal is to provide the chip with as many input/output (“I/O”) contacts or terminals as possible. Accordingly, the solder bumps are manufactured as small as possible to increase the number of solder bumps. However, decreasing the size of the solder bumps decreases their strength, for example, shear strength. Such solder bumps are more likely to fail. This may decapitate the chip.
For the reasons stated above, for other reasons stated below, and for other reasons which will become apparent to those skilled in the art upon reading and understanding the present specification, there is a need in the art for improved integrated circuit contacts or terminals.